How did helium deposits form?
Earth ScienceAsked by: Richard Byrd On Earth, helium is generated deep underground through the natural radioactive decay of elements such as uranium and thorium. “It takes many, many millennia to make the helium that’s here on the Earth,” says Sophia Hayes, a chemist at Washington University in St. Louis. How did helium get in the ore?
Slope of Saturation vapor pressure versus temperature-A parameter in Penman’s equation
Earth ScienceAsked by: Richard Byrd What is the relationship between temperature and saturation vapor pressure? As the temperature rises, the saturated vapour pressure increases rapidly, and so does the density of the vapour, approaching that of the liquid. At a certain temperature the density of the vapour becomes equal to that of the liquid, and the
Change in earth mass since the time of the dinosaurs
Earth ScienceAsked by: Ray Carrao Was there less gravity when dinosaurs were alive? My friend and fellow science writer Matthew Francis covers the gravity angle over at his blog – there’s no evidence that the Earth’s gravity was weaker during the heyday of the dinosaurs. Even as continents shifted around, the Earth’s gravity didn’t change. What
Electric permittivity of quartz
Earth ScienceAsked by: Jeremy Whiteman The extracted dielectric permittivity of quartz as a function of frequency using the extraction method described in the text is depicted. A constant value of approximately 3.8 is obtained for the frequency range 1 to 40 GHz and on average 3.76 for the frequency range 140 to 210 GHz. What is
Why does the meandering pattern of the jet stream itself propagate?
Earth ScienceAsked by: Jeremy Whiteman Why does the jet streams have a meandering tendency? Sometimes, like in a fast-moving river, the jet stream’s movement is very straight and smooth. However, its movement can buckle and loop, like a river’s meander. This will slow things up, making areas of low pressure move less predictably. The jet stream
Where did the atmosphere’s nitrogen come from?
Historical AspectsWhere Did All That Nitrogen in the Air Come From, Anyway? Okay, so you breathe in, you breathe out. Seems simple, right? But have you ever stopped to think about what you’re actually breathing? A whopping 78% of that air is nitrogen – an odorless, colorless gas that, honestly, doesn’t seem like it does much.